(2018-08-26) — As part of his sweeping crackdown on sexual abuse and coverups in the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis today ordered all priests, cardinals and others in the church hierarchy to abstain from molesting women, children and seminarians on Fridays.

The pontiff’s new commandment comes in the the wake of the shocking revelation by a former Vatican diplomat that the Holy Father was told as early as June 23, 2013 about U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s history of sexually molesting seminary students. The Pope reportedly remained silent, and later repealed sanctions previously-imposed on McCarrick by Pope Benedict XVI.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, 77, who served as apostolic nuncio in Washington D.C. from 2011 to 2016, says he personally told the Vicar of Christ that the Vatican had a thick file of allegations against McCarrick for “gravely immoral behavior,” indicating he was a “serial predator.” Yet, McCarrick’s influence with the Vatican grew greater during Francis’ pontificate.

Viganò’s 11-page public letter, detailing a wide-spread coverup among church leaders, sparked Pope Francis to issue the new ex cathedra (infallible) pronouncement that, in addition to abstaining from meat on Friday’s, priests must on that same day each week “penitentially refrain from wooing, grooming, groping or otherwise violating parishioners or students under their pastoral care.”